The TCP/IP network protocols (e.g., the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and the Internet Protocol (IP)) were designed to build large, resilient, reliable, and robust networks. Such protocols, however, were not originally designed with security in mind. Subsequent developments have extended such protocols to provide for secure communication between peers (e.g., Internet Protocol Security (IPsec)), but the networks themselves remain vulnerable to attack (e.g., Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks).
The largest TCP/IP network, the Internet, has become critical communications infrastructure for many of the world's countries, such as the United States of America (US). The US government, US military, and critical US commercial interests (e.g., utilities, banks, etc.) have become operationally dependent on the Internet as the communications medium supporting distributed applications such as the telephone system, utilities grids, and e-commerce. For the US and many other countries, it is a matter of national security that the Internet, as well as some of the distributed applications that the Internet supports, hereafter called Internet applications, be available for use by certain organizations during episodes of extreme loading. Extreme loading, or overloading, of the Internet occurs when the volume of network traffic exceeds the effective transmission capacity of the network. Overloading of Internet applications occurs when application servers attached to the Internet (e.g., distributed application servers) cannot handle the volume of service requests that are delivered to the servers by the Internet. Either of these overload cases may occur during cyber attacks launched by malicious adversaries or during periods of heavy usage by legitimate users.
Often for reasons of national security, some organizations need to have the Internet and certain Internet applications available to them during overload events. This type of availability requirement has been imposed on pre-Internet telephony systems by some governments. For example, the US Government Emergency Telecommunications Service (GETS) ensures that certain organizations and personnel have emergency access and priority processing for telephone calls on the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). Because of significant differences in protocols, architecture, organization, and operations between the PSTN and the Internet and Internet applications, the technologies, methods, and systems that support GETS cannot be readily ported to the Internet environment.
Accordingly, there is a critical need for technologies, methods, and systems that can meet availability requirements for the Internet and Internet applications during overload episodes.